The Tampa Bay Lightning are on the brink of a return trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, but coach Jon Cooper and his players say it will not be easy to close the deal against the Washington Capitals.
“We haven’t won anything yet,” Cooper said on Saturday, after Cedric Paquette scored in the opening minute and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots to help the Lightning hold off the Caps 3-2 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Ondrej Palat and Ryan Callahan also scored as the home team won for the first time in the series, with Tampa Bay taking a 3-2 series lead.
Photo: AFP
The Capitals have lost three straight after winning twice on the road to begin the series.
Alex Ovechkin scored with 1 minute, 36 seconds remaining, trimming what once was a three-goal lead to one, but Vasilevskiy made three more saves to finish the victory.
Game 6 is tonight in Washington, where Tampa Bay has already won to improve to 5-1 on the road this post-season.
“We have a lot of unfinished business. This isn’t even close to being over,” Callahan said. “This last game’s definitely the hardest against a very, very good Washington team. To go in their building and try to close it out is going to be tough.”
The Caps were encouraged by the way they finished the game and are confident they can force the series back to Tampa for Game 7.
“This group has got its backs against the wall, and this group has responded all year,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “I don’t expect anything different.”
Washington’s Dmitry Orlov turned the puck over in the neutral zone on the opening shift of the night and Callahan made the Caps pay for the mistake, feeding Paquette for a 1-0 lead just 19 seconds into the game.
Out-shot 13-4 and limited to one scoring opportunity in the opening period, the Caps began to put some pressure on Vasilevskiy in the second.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored a goal in his fourth straight game, giving him a franchise single-year, playoff-best 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) and trimming Washington’s deficit to 3-1 at 4 minutes, 21 seconds of the period.
The Capitals kept pressing in the third period, but did not break through until Ovechkin scored his 11th goal this post-season.
“It’s not frustrating,” Ovechkin said. “Of course, when you lose a game you feel bad. We just had a bad start. We didn’t handle the puck in the neutral zone. They got a lucky bounce and put in the first goal. That gave them momentum.”
“It’s disappointing, but I thought our second two periods were great,” Capitals winger T.J. Oshie said. “We showed a lot of character. Character doesn’t always win you games, but I think it’s going to be important to have that feeling going into Game 6 at home.”
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